I should have written this letter earlier but I have been in and out of the hospital with some medical issues and was unable to get back to this before now.

Last October my wife and I bought a house in Tacoma Washington for our son, and got our mortgage financing through Wells Fargo, account number 0173230632. As we had some unpleasant experiences on a previous mortgage when Wells Fargo failed to pay the insurance from our escrow funds, we requested that this mortgage be non-escrowed and it was approved. We closed on 24-October-2007.

In July I received the bill for the first half of the 2008 property taxes, which were already delinquent, costing me $142.82 in interest and penalties. I called the Pierce County Budget and Finance Department in Tacoma to find out why I had not received the notice before the taxes were due, and I was told that the tax bill had been requested in Feb-08 by Americas Servicing Company. When I contacted them (July 23, 2008) they informed me their parent company was Wells Fargo, and that they service the escrow accounts for Wells Fargo mortgages. I asked why they had requested the tax bills for my account as I did not have an escrow, and they referred me back to Wells Fargo’s tax department, where I spoke with a woman named Susan. She indicated that since I had no escrow account that neither Wells Fargo nor Americas Servicing Company had requested this info, despite what I had been told by the Pierce County Budget and Finance Department. I asked to speak to her supervisor and after ~10 minutes on hold I was connected to Rosemary Fausito, who said they could do nothing. I asked to speak to her supervisor, she indicated her supervisor, Karen Valentich, was out but would return my call. To date, more than 2 months later, I have not received the call.

My position is I was forced to pay the penalties and interest on my tax bill for no other reason than I had not received it in time, due to the meddling by Wells Fargo’s company Americas Servicing Company, which they had no right to do. There is no escrow account so Americas Servicing Company should not have even known about my mortgage, yet they had the tax bill sent to them instead of to me. Therefore Wells Fargo should be responsible for the $142.82.

I tried to resolve this by talking with employees of both Americas Servicing Company and Wells Fargo, and got nothing but denials of what had happened and expectations for return calls which never happened.

I hereby demand Wells Fargo to repay me for these fees which were imposed through no fault of mine, but because of Wells Fargo.

Regards,

James Thomas Sokola, Jr.
[email protected]
321-427-5470